Wednesday

Jun 27, 2018 at 3:33 PM

PORTSMOUTH — Nathan Bruno made a mistake.

He and his father, Rick Bruno, had already admitted as much to Portsmouth High School head football coach Ryan Moniz, who was the victim of a barrage of harassing text messages and phone calls sent from Nathan.

Rick Bruno and Moniz were communicating via email to set up a time for Nathan to apologize to Moniz in person.

Moniz eventually placed a condition for the meeting to take place. Nathan must name the other two people — who Moniz believed were players on his team — responsible for the texts and calls.

“I need all the information so I can assess how to move forward with this information,” Moniz told Rick Bruno, according to a reading Tuesday night of an executive summary of an independent investigation into the incident. “In light of this, I am only agreeing to meet with (Nathan) if he provides me with the other two names involved.”

This statement “unwittingly placed pressure on a father to urge his son to rat out friends, a person who was trying to do the right thing by coach and son, namely have his son take responsibility, apologize and serve his penance,” according to the reading by School Committee attorney Mary Ann Carroll.

“More importantly this statement underscores the immaturity of a 39-year-old adult charged with exhibiting a good example as a role model,” it continued. “Coach Moniz utterly failed in this regard.”

Moniz on Feb. 6 called a team meeting, during which he threatened to resign unless his players found out who the other two individuals were, the summary said.

“He used his position of power, authority and influence over emotionally charged adolescent students to resolve an adult problem — Coach Moniz’s problem, not the team’s problem,” said the summary, which was compiled by Providence-based attorney Matthew Oliverio after he conducted the investigation at the behest of the School Department.

The next day, Nathan, a sophomore at the school and one-time football player, died by suicide at his home.

“What should have been an average teenage life lesson turned into a horrific tragedy,” Rick Bruno said at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting, “especially after Nathan took full responsibility for what he did.”

The complaint that led to the investigation came from Rick Bruno. The investigation involved interviews with 36 people — others were requested, but those people either declined or didn’t return calls from Oliverio — and relied on text message and email correspondence, student-athlete handbooks, an interview with Superintendent Ana Riley, letters of complaints and support regarding Moniz, professional development summaries, School Department policies, performance evaluations, education records and an autopsy report.

Moniz, who sat in the front row in the packed Town Council chambers in Town Hall with his family and attorney Jeff Sowa, did not speak during the proceedings. He had requested that the discussion surrounding the investigation as it pertains to him be done in open session.

After hearing the executive summary and more than an hour of public comment from community members, including Sowa and Rick Bruno, the committee voted 6-0 to not reappoint Moniz as football coach for the 2018-19 school year, one of the recommendations outlined in the report. A second recommendation is that Moniz undergo training to “successfully comport himself to the coaches’ code of conduct.”

Moniz’s employment status as a physical education teacher at Portsmouth High School was not addressed Tuesday.

“There are no winners or losers,” said Terri Cortvriend, the chairwoman of the School Committee. “There is just sadness on both sides.”

Committee member Fred Faerber called it a “compelling report,” while fellow member John Wojichowski, who has two sons who played under Moniz, also voted to support the recommendation, saying Moniz showed “poor judgment” when he put the situation at “the feet of his players.”

Sowa said the process by which Moniz was not reappointed did not uphold his constitutional rights. He called the report “one man’s opinion” and said it did not allow for a cross-examination of those who were interviewed.

Sowa said he was hearing the summary for the first time along with the rest of the public at the meeting. He demanded a hearing “with the opportunity to present our defense, our witnesses and cross-examine these witnesses that were allegedly interviewed in some back-room with no opportunity to have another side presented.”

After the meeting, Sowa told The Newport Daily News he and Moniz would “consider our options” and reiterated that the process failed to uphold Moniz’s constitutional rights.

Moniz was made aware in early January “by rumor and by police” that Nathan, referred to only as “NB” in the summary, was the main culprit in the texts and calls. He “opted to pursue another avenue for outing any other offenders, enlisting the services of the existing team players,” according to the summary.

When Moniz met with his team on Feb. 6, he was “short, angry and upset,” according to the summary. “He was well aware that the vast majority of his student-athletes viewed him as a father figure with trust, confidence and respect, where winning was paramount.”

When he threatened to resign and left the room for his players to determine a course of action, “he knew or should have known that such an unwelcome consequence, resignation, would have evoked action on the part of those trusting athletes.

“Though Coach Moniz did not verbally communicate that the team should use any means, including a visit to (Nathan’s) home, to figure it out, the implied message was the same.”

Sowa pushed back, saying, “Everything he did was with the knowledge and support of his administration ... If it was such a terrible thing, what he did, then the administration and his supervisors should have told him not to do it.”

The School Committee met in executive session for about 25 minutes before the reading of the executive summary. Despite the presence of roughly 100 people in council chambers, there was very little chatter. A few dozen people spoke during public comment, many of whom expressed condolences for the Bruno family, but also supported Moniz.

Two portraits of Moniz emerged. “Coach Moniz can be a polarizing figure,” according to the summary. “He is either revered primarily by supporters of the Gridiron Club, or despised and loathed.”

Many current and former football players attested to Moniz’s character on Tuesday, crediting him with molding them into the men they are and serving as a father figure. Moniz, they said, maintained an open-door policy for players and a bully-free environment, treated all with the same respect and advocated on their behalf to college officials and coaches.

“Ryan was our rock,” his father-in-law Mark Swistak said of the role Moniz played after a death in the family. “Ryan was compassionate, loving and strong. You don’t know Ryan. Ryan held us up.”

Geoff Marcone, the football coach at La Salle Academy in Providence, said Moniz was there for him during a tough time in his life. “He’s a man of integrity to me,” he said. “He’s a man of character for me.”

The anguish from other speakers like Ken Martin was clear. “Why is Nathan Bruno not here?” he said. “That’s a question that goes through my head on a daily basis ... Why wasn’t an apology good enough from an adolescent to an adult? I’m at a loss as a parent, as a member of this community. How was a young adolescent boy’s needs so overlooked?

“Coach Moniz never put his head on his pillow wishing harm to any young man, I’m certain of that in my heart,” Martin continued. “Something went terribly wrong here in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Nathan Bruno was a 15-year-old boy and pressured beyond his emotional ability.”

Sowa, then Rick Bruno, were the first two people to provide public comment, which was limited to about two minutes per person.

“Why is it we as parents, teachers, administrators, neighbors, all of us here in the community do what we do for our kids?” Bruno said. “And I would say there is only one answer: Love. And with love comes safety.”

“A copy of the toxicology report showed Nathan had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death, he said. A psychological report of Nathan last summer showed he exhibited no signs of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation or social difficulties.

“In mid-January, the administration knew it was Nathan Bruno,” Rick Bruno said. “At that time, I should have been made aware and there should have been a safety net for Nathan, not a witch hunt.”

Neither Riley nor any other appointed school official spoke during the meeting.

Rick Bruno called for changes to the system, including drawing a distinction between issues within a school and outside of the school, and more professional development regarding adolescent brain development.

After the meeting, Riley said school employees will undergo more professional development tailored toward the social and emotional makeup of students. The schools are also implementing restorative justice programs to help handle disputes.

Robert Knight, while addressing the School Committee, said there is bullying at the school between faculty and students that is “being swept under the rug.” There is an attitude in Portsmouth that “nothing goes wrong” here, when that is not the case.

Colleen Carpenter said bullying is “rampant” within Portsmouth schools and said, “I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”

Town Council President Keith Hamilton, whose son plays on the football team, said he is “torn for the Bruno family and their friends,” but has seen Moniz “mold young men into the young men we want to see out there.”

“Too often we have a system that fails our students and our children,” Hamilton said. “And we look to blame an individual. I think we need to look deeper into our system and see where we all failed and not look to blame one individual.”

Anyone who is suicidal may receive immediate help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK.

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